Retail vs. OEM Thunderbird

[Punamo]

Seeing the prices of the two becoming so close to each other I'd like to know what the pros and cons of getting a retail CPU vs. OEM.

I figure if I get a retail CPU I won't have to spend money on the fan (and thermal compound) since they come attached (correct?).

I don't plan on overclocking (stability is a top priority).

What do you think?

 

[jaybert]

correct. You would also get a 3 year warrenty. If you do plan overclocking, you would probably need to switch fan + HS's.. also , i believe when you take off the HS/fan from the retail, you void your warrenty. I personally purcahsed a OEM w/ 1 year dealer warrenty. This way, if I kill the CPU OCing it, i can get it replaced (they wont know why it died since its default unlocked 1.2ghz 266bus). Just some other considerations.

 

[Punamo]

Agreed. If I were overclocking I'd do the same thing too.

Oh do retail CPUs run hot by the way?

ps:// updated original post with overclocking not being considered.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Buy retail.

The fan & heatsink is not glued on the cpu now, I've only seen pentium, pentium overdrive, early socket celeron have fan & heatsink glued on.

There is a great chance to get remarked oem cpu. There is even remarked retail cpu. To lower the risk, it's better to buy retail.

When there is coupon at those big dotcom stores, you could get a retail cpu even cheaper than oem from small stores.

 

[Kp99]

Get retail

 

[Vyle]

<< Oh do retail CPUs run hot by the way? >>



No. No hotter than OEM chips. If you're buying a retail chip and don't intend to overclock, well, by definition the retail HSF is AMD approved. The chip will be fine. But the stock fan doesn't cool as well as the better after market HSF. If you're not overclocking, that's not a concern. My Duron 700@700 is running with a CoolerMaster HSF that keeps CPU temp around 31. I would imagine the stock HSF wouldn't keep temps that low but it would still be fine.